Criminals have too many rights – Mbalula

PARLIAMENT, October 25 – Criminals in South Africa should relinquish their rights if Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has his way.
“One of the things we have noticed in our country is that criminals have too many rights. My view is that you forfeited your rights to live as a full citizen from the moment you chose to be a criminal an practice criminality,” Mbalula said during a media briefing on Tuesday, after the 2016/17 crime statistics were tabled in Parliament.
The hard-talking minister, who previously ordered police to crush the balls of criminals and make them drink their urine, said communities complain on a daily basis that criminals are freed to easily after their arrest.
Mbalula said failures in the entire criminal justice value chain was leading to criminals being “recycled” in communities.
“I know we are a Constitutional country, not a banana republic but what is important is that we cut criminals to size with regard to their criminal records.”
According to the latest statistics, contact crimes were down 2.4 percent.
However, the rate of murder increased by 1.8 percent – with 52 people being killed a day – between April, 2016 and March 31 this year, while aggravated robbery was also up 6.4 percent – a cause for concern for Mbalula.
Mbalula said the perception among South Africans was that police were not doing their jobs. That perception, he said would only be changed once there was stability at police management level and delivery at police station levels increased.
The job of national police commissioner has been vacant since Riah Phiyega was suspended in 2015. The job of the permanent head of the specialised policing unit, the Hawks, is also vacant.
Mbalula bemoanded the fact that crime intelligence was weak, with the head of this unit also being vacant.
The minister said his request for the South African National Defence Force being deployed to hot spots in the country was receiving consideration by the presidency.
“We are responding to an alarming situation with regard to our communities where there are violent acts undertaken by violent criminals,” Mbalula said while defending his request while briefing MPs.
“This is not a static, permanent stationing of the defence force to do police work. We looking at tactical deployments and them [SANDF] being led by South African Police Service.”
Mbalula said the decision to deploy will come from President Zuma.
“The president will give us the go-ahead once he has actually cleared the matter with himself and people who advise him on the matter.”
Mbalula said, if approved, the defence force would be deployed to hotspots in Gauteng, the Western Cape and Kwazulu-Natal.
The three provinces were among those who recorded the most number of murders.
Gauteng, South Africa’s most heavily populated province, recorded 4,101 murders in the 2016/17 financial year, up 6.7 percent.
KwaZulu-Natal police responded to 4,014 murders (up 2.2 percent), followed by the Eastern Cape with 3,628 murders (down 0.6 percent).
The Western Cape recorded the fourth largest number of murders at 3,311 (up 2.7 percent), with gang related activities responsible for a large portion of the killings.

A request to deploy members of the South African army to help police quell violence in crime hot spots is being processed by the presidency, Police Minister Fikile Mbalula told Parliament on Tuesday.

Briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on police, Mbalula explained that the South African National Defence Force would not be used to do the work of police but rather act as reinforcements.

“We are responding to an alarming situation with regard to our communities where there are violent acts undertaken by violent criminals,” he said.

“This is not a static, permanent stationing of the defence force to do police work. We looking at tactical deployments and them [SANDF] being led by South African Police Service.”

Mbalula said the decision to deploy will come from President Zuma.

“The president will give us the go-ahead once he has actually cleared the matter with himself and people who advise him on the matter.”

Mbalula said, if approved, the defence force would be deployed to hotspots in Gauteng, the Western Cape and Kwazulu-Natal.

The three provinces were among those who recorded the most number of murders.

Gauteng, South Africa’s most heavily populated province, recorded 4,101 murders in the 2016/17 financial year, up 6.7 percent.

The Western Cape recorded the fourth largest number of murders at 3,311 (up 2.7 percent), with gang related activities responsible for a large portion of the killings.

Carjackings, home robberies and business robberies continues to see a steady rise in South Africa, MPs were told on Tuesday.

Briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on police, Major General Norman Sekhukhune, head of police crime research and statistics, indicated that the three crimes, more commonly known as “trio crimes” has seen bigger rises in the 2016/17 financial year than previous years.

Carjackings were up 14.5 percent, while home robberies were up 7.3 percent (compared to an increase of 2.7 percent in 2015/16) and business robberies were up 5 percent.

Gauteng saw a 16.9 percent increase in carjackings with 8,610 cases reported, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 3,029 cases (up 21.5 %), and the Western Cape with 2,201 (up 8.3%).

The number of home robberies were also most prominent in Gauteng with 8,731 cases (up 10.6%) reported, followed by KwaZulu-Natal 4.255 (up 4.2%), and the Western Cape with 2,560 (down 0.5%).

There were 7,187 (up 4%) business robberies in Gauteng in 2016/17, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 2,951 (up 4.5%), and the Eastern Cape with 2,369 cases (up 6.8%).

While contact crimes in South Africa has seen a 2.4 percent decrease overall in the 2016/17 financial year, Police Minister Fikile Mbalula on Tuesday told MPs he was concerned that murder and aggravated robbery continued to show an upward trend.

According to the crime statistics presented in Parliament by Mbalula and SA Police Service management, murder is up 1.8 percent while robbery with aggravating circumstances rose by 6.4 percent.

Other contact crimes are down, including attempted murder (0.4%). The number of sexual offences reported to police was also down by 4.3 percent.

Assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm was down 6.7 percent while common assault saw a 5.2 percent decrease. Common robbery was down 1.3 percent.

Despite some of the decreases, Mbalula indicated it was not cause for celebration.

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